Kerri Reilly Turns Listening into Innovation

When Kerri Reilly told her family she had been nominated as a Morgan Stanley MAKER in the Innovator category, they had a simple question: What exactly had she invented?

Reilly still laughs when she tells the story. “I didn’t invent anything.”

The moment captures something essential about how she thinks about innovation. In her world, it rarely arrives as a breakthrough idea from a single person. More often, it comes from paying close attention to what people need — and helping good ideas turn into something real.

As COO and Head of Strategy for Morgan Stanley’s Field Risk and Service organization, Reilly works at the center of one of the Firm’s largest networks. Service Professionals and Risk and Service Leaders interact with Morgan Stanley clients every day, which means the tools, systems and processes they rely on have to work well at scale.

Reilly’s role often begins with listening. She and her team use advisory councils and the Field’s signature feedback program — which she helped launch and now manages — to gather ideas from across the organization. These insights help improve on-the-ground work, ranging from business-growth opportunities to efficiency initiatives like AI- and automation-enabled processes.

But translating those insights into real change requires more than agreement in a meeting room. “You can have the best idea in the world,” Reilly says. “But if you can’t make it a reality and execute on it, then it’s just an idea.”

That focus on execution — turning ideas into outcomes — has been a constant theme throughout her career, before she even realized it.

Learning from the Guts of the Business

Reilly studied political science at Loyola and imagined she might spend another summer working as a lifeguard in New York City, where she had spent years at Rockaway Beach. Her mother, who worked in financial services, encouraged her to explore opportunities at the firm where she worked — opening a door Reilly hadn’t previously considered.

She began her career in Operations, learning wealth management from what she describes as “the guts of the business.” The work exposed her to the systems and processes that hold a large organization together, and she quickly discovered something she enjoyed: simplifying complicated things.

As her responsibilities grew, she pursued a Master’s degree in information systems at night while continuing to work full time. The decision wasn’t driven by a job requirement so much as a desire to better understand the technical side of the work she was increasingly involved in. Sitting across the table from seasoned experts early in her career, she wanted the knowledge — and confidence — to contribute meaningfully to those conversations.

Over time, Reilly also became someone who colleagues turned to when challenges needed solving. Large organizations inevitably face moments when initiatives stall or problems grow more complicated than expected. Early in her career, she approached those situations the only way she knew how: by working longer hours and pushing through until the problem was resolved — a work ethic she credits to her mom.

Eventually she realized that approach had limits. “You need people who will jump into the fire with you,” she explains.

Taking a Leap of Faith

Today that insight shapes how she approaches leadership. Many of the challenges she works on involve coordinating across multiple teams, priorities and personalities. Progress depends less on one person having the answer and more on building trust across the group working toward a solution.

After spending almost a decade at her first firm, Reilly began thinking intentionally about where she could have the greatest impact and continue to grow. Morgan Stanley stood out for its reputation, the strength of its leadership and a culture grounded in their Core Values.

Between roles, she had several weeks of transition time before starting her next chapter. With unexpected time on her hands, she began spending more evenings out with friends. One of those nights in New York City led to another turning point: She met the man who would later become her husband. The timing felt serendipitous — one of those “sliding doors” moments where a career transition unexpectedly opened the door to something deeply personal.  

The Connections That Matter Most

Today, the two are raising three young children — a six-year-old, a five-year-old and a four-year-old. Navigating family life alongside a demanding career has required the kind of support system Reilly often talks about when describing leadership at work. Supporting her children’s growth and development introduced her to ParentLink, a grassroots, employee-led network founded by two colleagues from Technology to support working parents across the Firm.

At first, Reilly joined simply to learn from other parents who were navigating similar experiences. Realizing the potential for the network’s reach, she stepped into a leadership role to help organize and expand the group.

That philosophy — helping strong ideas reach their full potential — also shapes the culture she tries to build within her own teams. She makes a point of getting to know colleagues beyond their roles at work, learning about their families and creating opportunities for people to connect outside the office. Each summer, she hosts a gathering at her home where coworkers and their families spend time together, reinforcing the sense that the team extends beyond the workplace.

Reilly says being named a Morgan Stanley MAKER was both humbling and unexpected. When her team first told her they planned to submit a nomination, she tried to stop them. “I’m already a MAKER for my team,” she explained. “That’s enough for me.”